ALT A picture of a goat with text that says landscape sustainably with goats by Corey Farrenkopf librarian at eastham public library - blue marble library blog post

ALT Picture of a goat with text that says: When we think about sustainable landscaping at libraries, our minds often go to rain gardens, pollinator gardens, educational gardens filled with native plants, and community vegetable gardens. But how often do we think about sustainable landscape maintenance? Most town-run libraries have their grounds taken care of by the town’s highway department. They hustle in and mow and weed whack once a week and they’re on their way. While they do a good job, all of their tools and machinery burn fossil fuels, which isn’t great. In America, “it takes about 800 million gallons of gasoline annually, with 17 million additional gallons spilled” to maintain public and private landscaping needs (Jiahn Sohn, Princeton).

ALT Picture of goats in an enclosure with text that says: A recent trend in sustainable landscaping is to hire a team of goats to munch on all of your unwanted plants. Whether it be poison ivy, or knotweed, or saplings growing where they shouldn’t, the goats will devour them in a nice, leisurely manner. The knotweed, in particular, is a particularly interesting case. It’s become one of the hardest to manage invasives sweeping our peninsula. In an article titled, “Knotweed Dispensary,” Connecticut College had this to say about the issue, “While most plants reproduce by a scattering of their seeds, new knotweed plants crop up from pieces of other plants that have broken free and established roots. Their greatest foe, then, may well be the bearded, bleating weed-whacking goats that find the knotweed so delicious.”

ALT A picture of a white goat with text that says: Recently at the Eastham Library, we had Goat Green Cape Cod bring in a team of goats to take care of the overgrown edge separating the library from the forest that leads down to Depot Pond. This space had become swamped with poison ivy and brambles, encroaching on our rear lawn, which we use for programming space. The last thing you want when you’re having outdoor story time is for a toddler to toddle off into a thicket of poison ivy. Yikes.